Just to survive
by Guardian.Ghost
Summary: Dale is saved by an actual military member, but who is this member and what are the events that follow and the repercussions in allowing that member to stay? Rated M because of gore, language and minor nudity so minor it's not funny, but it's there R
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: None of this is beta, my work never is because I can never find a beta willing enough to go over my stuff, so as with most of my stories this is RAW material. And because I like Dale I thought I would take a stab at this, I know this follows Kamryn, but trust me this works. Anyways I hope you really like this story enough to REVIEW and add to your lists. I am notorious for not updating often, so I apologize ahead of time, but I will give updates when I can.**

**Cheers!  
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**Ghost  
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**PS Spoilers are the episode with Dale getting killed, but I changed that.  
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* * *

This was nothing like she could have ever imagined, the last few months when she had left Toronto from Quebec, down towards Atlanta and ultimately through, it was brutal. Kamryn had been training with her platoon in a forest area known as Farnham to finish her Basic Military Officer Qualification when shit started to get really bad. Needless to say when she walked away from the scene of mass murder at the main military base is Quebec, she was the only one left of her platoon. When she had made it back to the main military base, Kamryn had changed into familiar clothing and raided the armory and left before she too was killed by others trying to contain the outbreak.

There had been so much chaos that no one stopped her when she had come back and. Taking what was important to her and few other things in a much new and larger rucksack then the one she was issued; Kamryn left Quebec and headed West hoping to make it home while feeling like a walking armory. Taking an 'un-boxed' C-8, a Mossberg 500 with a detachable stock, a Sig 226 from a dead Police officer and a slung M24A2 which Kamryn took off a dying American who killed him, Kamryn kept to the trees and kept a tight edge to buildings when she was in cities to avoid the literal 'walking dead'. It was on her way West that she found that the main bridge out was gone and there was no way that Kamryn was going to be to swim across the river below. So with that information Kamryn took her chances and headed south through Detroit picking up new supplies and clothing along the way figuring that she would head towards Miami where she knew a few people.

It had been a month or two and Kamryn had made it into Georgia or more specifically Atlanta, the city was large and it was crawling with the dead, after a few close calls and scraps Kamryn had finally managed to pick up a ride from a campsite she had come across, it was full of monster ATV's with gas cans, tents, canned food and other things. Taking the ATV Kamryn had seen in the distance a ball of fire and caught the tail end of an explosion. Having stopped and parked a way off from vehicles Kamryn raised the visor on her stolen helmet and watched as the vehicles made a U-turn and started down the highway away from her.

Survivors!

There where Survivors!

Not caring about the wreck that was once a building Kamryn looked behind her and heard moans and the dead making their way to the smoldering ruins. Lowering her visor Kamryn started the ATV and sped off trying to catch up to the survivors.

* * *

It had been a hard ride for the last few days out of Atlanta and along the highway trying to catch up to the survivors, but eventually even Kamryn had to give up her ATV and park it along the highway of hell by a car that had writing on the windshield. Following the instructions by foot Kamryn headed east and came across a field clearing with a house in the distance. It had been late evening when Kamryn with her rucksack made her through the tall grass, up ahead there was a figure walking about, reaching between her pack and her back Kamryn grabbed the handle of a machete she had picked up a while back.

Pulling it from the sheath Kamryn's senses sharpened and she evened out her footsteps making them near silent. The figure had stopped at something and Kamryn inched forwards and saw the figure looking about before something took them from behind. Ripping at the quick release straps Kamryn bolted forwards feeling lighter without the heavy weight on her back. Hearing a man scream Kamryn got closer and when she was three feet away she took a hop forward and with her leg powering her, Kamryn's right leg power pushed the thing off the man.

Following through with the movement Kamryn barely avoided stepping on the man and with a heave and an over handed diagonal swing, the machete hit the dead taking the reaching arm off at the shoulder before she turned the blade and brought it back up taking the head off the thing, and finally she kicked the thing back with her left leg. Now all of this took a matter of seconds and when she finished Kamryn turned and looked at the man on the ground who stared back up her breathing heavily.

Calls from the house in the distance shook Kamryn out of her revere from staring at the older man, giving him a half smile Kamryn headed back to her pack and reset the straps as Kamryn heard the voices get closer. Standing up Kamryn watched in shock as a little under a dozen people went to the old man.

"DALE!"

"DALE WHERE ARE YOU!"

It seemed that the old man hadn't gotten up yet, must still be in shock. Dragging her pack over to the man, Kamryn kneeled down by the man's side that was gapping like a fish. Clapping in front of his face Kamryn watched as the man blinked and shuffled back a bit.

"Hey are you alright there old timer?" The man looked from Kamryn to the dead body then back to her and nodded quickly. Reaching to the fallen gun Kamryn picked it up and handed it back to the man.

"DALE!"

Kamryn looked towards the sound of the voice before standing and holding out a hand, the man took it and she pulled him to his feet watching as he fixed his bucket hat back on his head.

"Your friends are looking for you" Kamryn said watching the man look around and call out, the voices made their way to where Kamryn and the man now known as Dale stood. Keeping herself at the man's side, Kamryn watched as a red neck rushed on the scene followed by a short shorn hair, pissed looking guy. The red neck was wearing a sleeveless shirt and had a scruffy looking face. The short shorn man was trying to pass off a military look but he looked to Kamryn like an asshole and he in all honestly probably was.

The rest came up behind those two and saw the dead cow, and the dead body then looked to Dale who was stand beside Kamryn.

"Dale, are you okay?" it had come from a blonde hair woman with an aged face despite her being young, Kamryn stepped back and saw that everyone regarded her wearily and that in turn made Kamryn extremely weary in return.

"I'm fine, actually I was saved in the nick of time" Dale had managed to spit out; he was finally over his shock over what had happened. He had slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked to side to find that Kamryn had backed off a bit. The "skin head" as Kamryn mentally called him had pulled a glock on her, and in response Kamryn pulled the Sig Sauer from a leg holster, attached to the Sig Sauer was a Silencer. A hard look crossed Kamryn's face as she pulled the hammer back without a second thought.

"Just who the fuck are you?" spat the 'skin head'.

"Shane put it down!" this had come from a scruffy looking man, but he had the air of police officer to him as Kamryn leveled her weapon on the man she was told was Shane.

"No, she's armed, she came to our farm!"

"As far as I am concerned young man, this is still my farm, so listen to Rick" An older man in a white shirt and suspenders attached to his pants snapped at Shane, he had white hair much like Dale, but he had compassionate eyes that were currently hard glaring at Shane.

"Listen to your friends, I wouldn't want to have shoot you in the leg, because honestly I don't have a problem pulling this trigger, you do. " With that Kamryn kicked the dead things' head that was at her feet at the Shane who recoiled as the thing gnashed its teeth, a soft crack later and the thing stopped moving. Smoke poured from the barrel of Kamryn's gun. Shane glared hard before he turned and walked away looking over his shoulder only once.

Dale stood beside Kamryn as she holstered her weapon again and looked to the others, there was a silent conversation happening that Kamryn wasn't privy to. It was clear the group that was gathered was divided as to what to do, but Dale silently challenged them all and in the end they all left leaving Dale, the blonde standing in the field.

"Fine she stays, but she better not back stab us for letting her stay..." from whom Kamryn had no idea but it was a woman and not the blonde that was standing beside Dale. Kneeling down Kamryn swung her pack with a grunt onto her back and did up the buckles.

"You saved Dale why?" Kamryn turned her head and looked to the blonde that asked her to the question, the blonde was clearly apprehensive about Kamryn as she pulled Dale closer to her.

Smiling lightly Kamryn answered her back, "I did it because it's the decent thing to do. In fact it's what any decent human being would do, unless you happen to be an ass and just leave the person there." Glancing between the two Kamryn sighed and started to walk away from the two when she heard a call.

"No!" Stopping and turning her head Kamryn eyed the two carefully; Andrea was staring at the older man who even in the dead of night under the moon tinged pink. "No, stay, we need more people like you. In fact you can stay in the RV, there is more than enough room there for you."

"I.." Kamryn started, but she was pulled by her back lightly and cut off by a single word.

"Please…"

That was all that was needed and Kamryn nodded following the two back to camp of cars and the house. The blonde that had introduced herself as Andrea had said she had something to do and left Dale to get Kamryn settled in.

* * *

Inside the RV under actual light Dale had gotten a good look at Kamryn and just how much she was carrying in that rucksack of hers. Her appearance was rugged, but from the way she was dressed Dale almost thought Kamryn looked like a Special Forces soldier.

She was wearing faded black jeans and a thick black belt with two hanging thigh rigs. Her right thigh rig had her pistol holster and two magazine pouches this was in a solid black with faded edges. Her left thigh rig had two slightly larger pouches on it with a third narrow one between the two, this too was in the same black with faded edges.

Her right knee was covered in what Dale could only guess was a cross of a knee brace and knee guard; it had large thick straps above and below the knee guard portion on her thigh and the bottom strapped around her calf. Her left knee had what Dale guessed to be a regular knee guard with a braided cord wrapped above and below the left knee.

Moving his gaze up a bit Dale noted the vest that she was wearing, it was clearly military and with the number of pouches on her front Dale could only guess how many bullets she had or could carry. And it wasn't only pouches that could carry bullets; there were pouches that only carried only god knew what. Covering Kamryn's shoulders and upper arms were riot armour pieces, Dale knew this because of a magazine article that he had come across in his travels about police and riots.

Kamryn's mid forearms showed because what was left were the sleeves of her shirt rolled up to the mid forearms and her hands where covered in textile black gloves that fit her well. Around her neck was a green and black shemagh, her hair was a tad longer then the military regulation short for women, and she had dark brown eyes that looked almost black.

"Can I help you Mr. Dale?"

"Hmm?" Dale tinged and realized that he had been caught staring. Bashfully looking around the Camper Dale was watched by Kamryn and he had seen her chuckle lightly at him as she moved further in and set her pack on the floor by the table he pointed to. Once seated Kamryn watched Dale move about picking up a few things and getting her a drink from the sink area, without looking to his side he asked her a question.

"Do you have a weapon other then the pistol and machete, because if you don't, I can see if I get someone to lend you one..." Kamryn laughed and pulled a fabric top off a roll that was attached to the side of her pack. The pack had two barrels pointed out, leaning over Kamryn opened her packed and pulled a few items and rearranged her goods but put on the table a large canvas roll followed by a small metal box and some cloth rags.

Seeing the two barrels Dale saw the end of what was a shot gun and another one of what was a rifle, but because both barrels only showed Dale couldn't tell what the body was, if there even was one under the canvas roll.

"What are you?" Dale set a glass a of water down on the table as he watched Kamryn unroll the canvas roll showing smaller plastic rolls which from there Kamryn unrolled parts which Kamryn cleaned with the rags.

"I'm a soldier, navy more specifically. I was going through officer training when all that shit went down. I was out in the middle of butt fuck nowhere when we saw the first of the Eaters" Dale nodded and was drawn to the Shemagh that Kamryn pulled from her neck, she pulled off her gloves and tossed them onto the Shemagh and went back to the task in front of her.

"At the time we had nothing but blanks in our rifles so we hoofed it back to base, from there the shit really began to fly, people getting murdered left, right and centre. I made it back to my room and things, took what I needed and I went to get gear afterwards. I picked up a newer, larger bag went to the armory picked up a few weapons, armour that was kicking around, ammo, food, and water. From there I hightailed it out of there as biohazard guys in suits and guns cut us soldiers down. I left Quebec and started to go west, but that turned out badly so I had to go south instead through Detroit, through elsewhere till I finally hit Atlanta. Eventually I made it out through Atlanta when I saw a building go up in flames and smoke. I had seen people leave and followed them as well as I could on an ATV I was on at that time, however I lost them in the end. Kamryn had cleaned off the parts and put together a rifle, an automatic one from Dale's view.

"Wait you said you followed people from an exploded building? You followed us from the CDC?" Kamryn looked up from the rifle she was finishing when she saw the look on Dale's face.

"Was that the building that went up in smoke?"

"Yeah it was, I barely made it out there before it did." Kamryn's eyebrows when up into her hairline. She had finally caught up to them. Staring back at Kamryn, Dale pointed to her sleeves and herself. "You are lucky you didn't get eaten."

"Oh believe me I've had my fair share of close calls. You really don't want to know about them." Taking the finished rifle, Kamryn cleaned the last of the residue off, rolled up the plastic and rolled that into the canvas roll which the gun had come from setting that to the side. Picking the rifle up and shouldering it Kamryn looked down the iron sight before pulling the charging handle back Kamryn pulled the trigger and heard the click that she was after.

"I have been around the block and I think this is the third time I've reassembled this thing, most of the time I use the Mossberg or the M24 that an American soldier gave me. It's a bit hard to come by .308 rounds, so I haven't used that as often as I have my Sig or the Mossberg." Reaching down to her leg Dale heard a plastic buckle then Kamryn bring something up and attach it to the front of the barrel. It was a silencer and Dale knew why and what it was for, and for a moment he was scared.

"Don't worry, I always attach one, it saves me trouble from making noise and bring more of the buggers my way. Going into her bag again Kamryn pulled a black sling out and attached it to the front and rear of the rifle, going back and digging into her pack again Kamryn pulled out a small black roll. Dale watched as Kamryn unrolled and attached a scope to the top rail of the rifle and shouldered the gun again fixing the sights before she set it down.

"So, what is it you would like me to do?"

"I uh, I don't know. I say you go and look in with the others to see what you can do. You might be doing guard duty or they might want you do just be around. My suggestion would be to talk to Rick… or Hersal."

A couple of thuds on the door of the RV had Kamryn pull her pistol from her leg holster and pointing it at the door.

"Dale?" Dale stood and pushed Kamryn's pistol out of the way. Opening the door he stuck his head out as Rick, Andrea and Daryl stood there looking expectantly. Letting them in, the three climbed in and looked at Kamryn who was settling her pistol back in the holster. Reaching up to her vest Kamryn pulled open one of the pouches and pulled a black magazine out, putting it into the breach and slamming it home Kamryn looked up and saw now four people in the RV including Dale.

"So what are you to do with me?" the new three people eyed the now armed rifle in Kamryn's grasp as she pulled the charging handle back turning the safely on.

"Who are you, and how did you find us?" Rick asked bluntly.

Kamryn raised an eyebrow at the man, she saw the red neck Daryl with his hand ready on the handle of his pistol. Narrowing her eyes a bit Kamryn moved the rifle so that the front of the magazine was snug against the edge of the table and with a very slow thumb movement she had the safety off.

"Put that down boy… and to answer your question, I'm Lieutenant Commander Kamryn Destler. I'm a member of the Canadian Forces or I was. Now put that shit away before I put a hole in your hand." Daryl snickered and pulled his hand off the grip of the pistol and stood there as Rick and Lorie took in the information.

"You are a soldier?"

"I'm a navy woman, but I am military if that helps you any. I was in a shitty place at an extremely shitty time. I tried to get home but I was forced to go south. Since then I've been on the lookout for people. I've had to use my guns a few times but for the majority of it I was able to limit my munitions usage and keep to my machete, but do not for one minute think that I will be sharing my ammo, because one. It was hard enough to come across what I did and two it's specialized to the weapons that I have on me."

"Tell me why I shouldn't just put a bullet in your head and take what you have?"

"Because if you do, you will never make to Miami where I heard they managed to convert an aircraft carrier into a refuge, now if you want to kill me then you find that I am a faster shot, I have been shot before and I am also not going to be able to give you any information about get to the carrier if you manage to hit me." Rick looked incredulously at Kamryn, he had be backed into a corner and with that he was shocked to learn that there was a way to get out of the hell hole now.

"Okay, fine. I won't let anyone get to you if you are willing to be a member of this 'family'"

"Family? Dude, I'll be your guard dog and protector much like boy wonder there."

"Why dun cha just shut yer…" Kamryn glared at Daryl who sniffed and looked to the wall of the RV, Andrea had hope glimmer in her eyes before they saddened, Rick was fighting an internal battle but he knew there was nothing they could really do and if Kamryn was aware of what was really going on with the 'dead'.

"There is a shower in the house; I don't know when the last was for you to take a shower. We have hot water too, so take what you need and make yourself at home. Welcome to our group." Rick and Daryl left leaving Andrea and Dale with Kamryn who flicked the safety back on before she pulled the magazine out and pulled the slide back on the side of the rifle popping the round out of the side breech.

"Well that was fun" Kamryn sighed, the two others watched as the woman that had energy and bite suddenly just age in front of them. Setting the rifle down on the table Kamryn leaded back and eyed the two.

"Are you alright there Lieutenant?" Andrea asked lightly, Kamryn looked up and offered her a slight smile before nodding twice.

"I'm just tired, I've been always moving, only stopping to take a nap for a few hours before having to run off again. I think that I've been moving for the last two to three months, got into some rough scrapes but I've always managed to get away. Thanks to my American friend whom I was traveling with before he off'ed himself I have his M24 attached to the side of my bag. What this is, this was something that not even the military know about, or they do know what this thing is they don't want anyone knowing it was them that created this." Dale and Andrea looked at Kamryn scared when she mentioned that even the military may or may not know what the 'Walkers' are. Sliding out of the seat Kamryn dug into her back and pulled out showering gear and a change of clothes, they looked considerably cleaner to what Kamryn was currently in.

"Keep an eye on my things, and don't let anything of mine out of sight. If it's not too much to ask please just stay in here till I get back." Both Andrea and Dale nodded as Kamryn grabbed her gloves and the shemagh before walking out of the RV and towards the house.

* * *

Walking into the house, Kamryn was greeted by the sounds of life around her, making her way down the hall towards the kitchen Kamryn saw the man white haired man Hershel hugging a woman older than her, while another was at the stove with an Asian guy cooking.

Backing away from the kitchen Kamryn stopped just short of the sitting room where she heard Rick and the pissed Shane hissing in the corner by a window, most likely Shane was hissing over the fact that she was there with the group now. Shaking her head Kamryn did a 180 and game face to face with a short grey haired woman who introduced herself as Carol. Asking where the shower was, the older woman nodded and took Kamryn up the stairs and got her a towel even at the insistence that Kamryn had her own.

Stepping into the bathroom that Carol had pointed out, Kamryn smiled to the older woman and shut the door behind her and locked it. Doing a visual inspection Kamryn set her things down on the counter before putting her shampoo and body wash in the tub. Reaching up to rub her face Kamryn winced and reached up with her right hand again and grunted in pain. Unbuckling the left side of her vest and pulling it off laying it on the floor against the door, turning enough to look Kamryn saw a dark stain on the right side of her back by her neck above the shoulder blade.

"Damn"

Making sure the door was locked Kamryn pulled her thigh rigs off and unbuckled the belt pulling the left leg rig up on the counter. Pulling on of the larger pouches off and opening, Kamryn laid on the counter a surgical set of tools along with gauze, tape and a smaller towel that was permanently stained dark red. Undoing the buttons on the green button down she was wearing, Kamryn pulled it open and dropped it to the ground away from the white rug and that was followed by the t-shirt, tank top, brown-red strap stained bra and finally the brown-red gauze she pulled off and through into the garbage. Pulling a harder case from the other pouch that was on the left thigh rig, Kamryn retrieved a vial and a pressure syringe. Filling the syringe Kamryn smoothed out the fabric of her right leg and jammed the needle into her leg while clenching her teeth in pain Kamryn looked into the mirror as she picked up the scalpel turning her body showing an ooze fill bubble that was red and dark looking. Taking a deep breath Kamryn cut into the bubble as the red ooze came out. Taking twenty minutes to cut away the bubble as well as she could Kamryn used her stained towel to get the worst of the liquid.

Looking at the mess of her back and the shape of the hole, Kamryn's thoughts were back to the RV where she mentioned that she had some close calls. Seeing in the mirror that she was a tad pale Kamryn cleaned up her mess and stripped down quickly before standing in the shower and turning the water on. When it was warm enough Kamryn stepped under the hot stream and nearly screamed out in pain, this was one of the easiest ways to clean out the rest of the crude in her back even if it was the most painful despite injecting herself with painkillers. Washing up and wincing as she washed Kamryn finally stepped out of the shower thirty minutes later and dried herself off while avoiding the open wound that was no longer dripping blood.

Pulling on her underwear on followed by the tan casual military cargos, and footwear, Kamryn turned and looked at the wound and its mouth shape. Taking the premade gauze with brown power on it Kamryn angled herself and put the gauze with the tape on and padded it into place, taking a deep breath and dressing in a black tank top with a thicker black military BDU shirt she glanced in the mirror before she heard a knock on the door followed by a not so familiar male voice.

"Hey are you alright in there?"


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Forgot last chapter to put up a disclaimer. I don't own The Walking Dead, but Kamryn is mine! That aside I give you all a short chapter and show the antagonism of Shane. I never liked him, he was always the guy that saw himself above everyone else. No offense he deserved a much more violent death, such as being ripped apart by the walkers. He should have been in Dale's place in the TV show.**

**Okay enough ranting. ^.^ R&R please!  
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**Ghost  
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* * *

"Hey are you alright in there?" Kamryn turned her face to the door and stood up tall a myriad of thoughts and emotions crossing her face before it all settled into passiveness. She finally answered and looked to the counter again.

"Yeah, yeah I am alright. Say do you know a doctor?" Kamryn called through the door, the voice on the other side was quiet before it hushed down a tad.

"Why do you need a doctor?" Looking to the ceiling and throwing up an exasperated look Karmryn kicked aside her vest and opened the door looking at a tall young man with a cowboy hat, the look on his face was priceless. Raising up an eyebrow, the man looked her over quickly before looking her in the eye again.

"I'm a woman, do I need to say more?" The young man shook his head and headed off down the stairs without giving an answer to if there was a doctor around. A minute or two later after Kamryn had shut the door and was cleaning up the counter there was a softer knock and the voice of Hershel.

"Can I come in Lieutenant?"

Opening the door Kamryn looked down both halls before pulling the older man in who had his medical kit in hand. Shutting it and locking the door Kamryn sized the man up and the bag she looked him in the eye and he the same.

"Are you a doctor?"

"I am. What can I do to help you?" Hershel looked down at Kamryn who leaned against the sink counter before looking to the mass of clothes on the floor in a corner and the blood stained towel with tools lying on top of it.

"What did you do?"

"Do I have your word that if I show you, that you will not. And I mean not tell anyone here about this"

"I promise, but what happened?" Kamryn stood away from the counter and turned around unbuttoning the BDU shirt, and pulling the tank top off covering her breasts as she hadn't put a bra back on. Kamryn tracked Hershel's movements in the mirror and nodded that he could get closer. The older man had put his kit on the now clean counter and washed his hands and put a pair of gloves on. Pulling at the not quite well placed gauze, the material gave way as Kamryn hissed lightly; Hershel's facial response was shock before he looked at her face in the mirror.

"I've had this for at least a month, and when I got it, the thing was the size of my fist, it's smaller now meaning it's healing, but because of the pressure on my back and my shoulders due to my pack I have not had time to heal it properly. Most of the time it covers over with a flesh bubble and it somewhat festers, I've dealt with it the best I have with the brown powder on that gauze. But because I am I right handed and not left I haven't been able to remove some of the half infected fat and muscle.

This is why I don't want anyone to know, but if I haven't died yet like some of the others I have come across, then I will survive. But the side effect of that bite was that lost my menstrual cycle, now I don't know if that's a blessing or a bad thing."

"Hershel opened his kit and pulled out his own tools and laid them out along with a bottle of clear liquid that read 'Disinfectant' Looking at the man in the mirror Kamryn saw him pull a vial out and needle.

"I injected myself with enough to dull the pain; if you want me to still stand you may need to be careful how much more you give me." Hershel looked to the toilet and had Kamryn sit on the seat turned so her upper body was leaning against the counter.

"I'll give you enough now so that you can't feel it and possibly make you dozy with the amount already in your system. I'll make sure you don't fall, however I would prefer you were laying in a bed while I work on this. I do know however that you don't want anyone to know so I suggest you come up with a story." Hershel measured out the injection and put it into Kamryn's arm. Reaching for the vest that she had kicked closer to the toilet Kamryn pulled a smashed round out from a small pouch.

"Use this, coat it in blood if you have to that should cover enough for a story." Kamryn went back to leaning against the counter and Hershel got to work. The two had a quiet conversation about their lives and after another thirty minutes of cleaning and patching up, Kamryn had a thick pad liberally coated in the brown powder and in the wound as there wasn't flesh to sew the bite closed.

"Take it easy, come to me tomorrow to get that looked at and changed, otherwise keep taking painkillers to mask the pain and rest. Get lots of rest, as for your other problem you will need to see a gynecologist for that. I can tell you that maybe your body has lost enough blood that you cycle isn't active, or maybe you flew through and you are finally free of said cycle, in which case in a world like this, this is a blessing. Finally dressed again and pulling the vest on carefully along with the belt and the thigh rigs Kamryn thanked Hershel who in turn offered to sterilize Kamryn's surgical tools and clean her other clothes no questions asked.

Flying up in the clouds as many would say, Kamryn shook her head and collected the things that Hershel didn't gather to be cleaned and headed downstairs after the man; Kamryn had turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs and nearly ran into Rick who eyed her questioningly.

Holding up the bullet that was 'cleaned' Kamryn offered Rick a half smile, Rick eyed the bullet then Kamryn who gently padded her back.

"I was shot, I survived, but I had a bullet sitting at my shoulder blade area, it had been bothering me so I had it cut out. Along with a slight infection that I am taking meds for, I will be fine in the long run, so don't look like I have been bitten." Kamryn put the bullet back in her vest as someone announced that dinner was done.

Following Rick to the kitchen Kamryn was met with friendly faces sans two which came from Shane and oddly enough the black haired woman who mentioned 'back stab' to her. After introductions went around Kamryn took her food and smiled her thanks before leaving the kitchen as someone said they needed to replace watch and get Andrea, Dale and T-Dog which Kamryn said she would go do.

Stepping out into the night, Kamryn did a visual sweep again and went to the RV and called to the man that was sitting on top, it was a black guy, but you wouldn't hear Kamryn say that to his face just to avoid getting her ass handed to her.

"Hey buddy, dinner is on. Go eat I'll take your spot"

"Alright food, oh and hey I'm T-Dog" The man got off the roof of the RV and headed for the house when Andrea and Dale poked their head out of the RV door. Nodding towards the house Kamryn climbed up and set her food on a cooler before climbing back down and went into the RV grabbing her rifle, the magazine she left on the table and the round she had stood up.

"Go eat you two, I told them I would take watch, besides Shane I think it was has a stick up his ass and doesn't like me along with some woman who was sitting with Rick, anyways go on over" Turning her head to yawn Kamryn shook her head and loaded the round into the magazine then slammed the magazine home again into the breach. Quickly packing away her things into her pack Kamryn pulled a lock from the bag and checked her vest to make sure she had her keys. Andrea and Dale had left saying they would be back afterwards leaving Kamryn to head out of the RV and climb on top with her rifle. With her rifle sitting on her lap with her meal sitting on top of the rifle Kamryn ate silently while fighting the drowsy effects of the painkiller that Hershel put her on, it was a full moon so there was a decent amount of light left as Kamryn swung her eyes around in the darkness.

_Blinking slowly Kamryn saw something in the distance, putting her food down on the cooler Kamryn pulled the charging handle on her rifle and lifted the rifle to her shoulder with a slight wince. Looking through the scope Kamryn saw sluggish movement, fingering the safety off and setting it to single shot Kamryn squeezed the trigger, the head exploded out the back before the body collapsed. Looking around further on the edge of the forest Kamryn turned when she heard a moan from behind her, milk white eyes stared down at her as peeling, dripping flesh fell off the 'walker's' face before striking._

"Guuh…" Kamryn shook her head and looked around, she had fallen asleep, and her heart was racing as her grip on the plate which was sitting on her rifle half eaten. Trying to get her breathing and heart rate under control Kamryn turned her head when she felt the RV shift and Dale climbing up to join her in the other seat that was there.

"Are you alright?" Dale saw Kamryn's pale face and the look of fear that was painted along her features, which was quickly schooled into a smile that didn't really quite reach her eyes.

"I'm alright, I must have fallen asleep and I had a nightmare and no less while I was eating too. I didn't think I would be this tired."

"Hershel said he pulled a bullet from your back and are on painkillers, so are you sure you are alright?"

"I… no, I'm exhausted, I'm not quite in pain but I said I would do this so I shall." Kamryn sat up a little straighter and finished off her cold meal and drinking from the bottle of water she had with her at her feet. Dale shook his head and put a hand on Kamryn's shoulder.

"No head down below, get some sleep. When the other's heard that you had a bullet removed among the other gory details about the infection everyone looked out the window where you were. I offered to take your place so it's why I am here. They never realized how hard you push yourself, but then again I don't anyone knows how much any soldier pushes themselves." Kamryn gave a half smile and looked to the rifle sitting on her lap.

"Are you sure?"

"Go, get some sleep, you aren't going to be guard duty for a while not with your shoulder." Kamryn grunted and stood up, slinging her rifle she nodded and carefully made her way to the ladder when Dale spoke up again.

"Thank you again for saving me Lieutenant and sleep well" Kamryn cracked a smiled and climbed down, when she was on the ground again she turned smack in Shane who pushed her against the ladder with his presence.

"I don't how you did it, how you managed to hookwinked my people, but you better watch your back girl. Because here? You are nothing, here you are a nobody." Shane got right up in her face before she felt hand on the front of her vest and she was slammed against the ladder. Kamryn clenched her jaw in pain as Shane stalked away, Dale had poked his head over the side and saw Shane head into the house and Kamryn leaning against the ladder.

"Don't even ask Dale…" Grunting Kamryn used the wall of the RV to keep herself standing as she made her way around then inside were she used inside walls and table to walk, pain was at the edge of her vision and she was fading out quickly. Falling onto one of the two beds that had been made up for her Kamryn blacked out as Shane's face was on her mind's eye.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I have been having a very rough month, with the loss of my jobs, and my trying to find a new one I've been trying to feel so down. However I think that if I can manage this and my problems I'm sure a few good things will come my way. Other than that I hope you enjoy the next bit of the story. Thanks for staying and reading. And yes this will be Dale and Andrea... hopefully I do them justice.  
**

**Ghost  
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* * *

**Chapter 3**

"I don't know how long she has been out; all I saw was her after Shane had come by"

"Shane?"

"He was here; I don't know what he was doing though"

"All of you get out; she's been hurt, I need to get her moved to the house. Rick you keep an eye on Shane ye hear. I don't want to be patching up anyone we get that could get us to safety."

"I…"

"I am willing to leave my home so that my daughters have a chance, don't you want that for the baby?"

"Yes…"

Kamryn was slightly awake hearing voices but the pain in her back sent her back into the realm of unconsciousness again. When she had awoken again Dale and Hershel were sitting at her bedside talking quietly to each other. Grunting Kamryn stayed on her side hugging the pillow she was half on while keeping her eyes closed against pain in her back.

"Lieutenant?" Opening her eyes slightly Kamryn saw Dale kneeling down beside the bed so he was eye level with Hershel standing behind him getting an injection ready.

Unable to trust her voice Kamryn turned her face to the pillow as Hershel worked his magic in giving pain relief, he shooed out Dale who said would be back later on. Once the doors were closed to the room, Hershel went about the room. Kamryn shut her eyes as she felt the bed dip and the bandage that was wrapped tightly around her back and shoulder being cut.

"Take it easy Lieutenant, I had to wrap your shoulder up good and stop your bleeding when Dale had come to check up on you some time during the night. You are lucky to be honest with the way the injury is, and what it is." Kamryn shifted uncomfortably as the dressing was changed and repacked. "I'm going to help you sit up so I can wrap your shoulder again."

Hissing lightly, Kamryn opened her eyes and reached out when Hershel moved off the bed and around, once he was on the side that Kamryn was facing, Hershel reached under Kamryn's left armpit and held out his other arm in which Kamryn gripped tightly and helped her sit up keeping her steady till she was able to keep herself in a seated position. Nodding to Hershel the man left her side and grabbed some pressure bandages and some padding.

"I'm going wrap you up with some padding at your shoulder, but you will really have to be careful how much strain you put on yourself. I don't know what happened last night between you and Shane but you need to be careful of him."

"I know, I learned that when I first met him after saving Dale from that Walker and when he cornered me last night getting off of the RV." Kamryn grunted as Hershel started wrapping her shoulder and back up, when he was done he took a cloth and cleaned off the blood on her back before handing her the now cleaned black BDU shirt from last night a softer short sleeve shirt.

"You can't wear pullover shirts of any kind right now, so hopefully this will help you for the time being." Kamryn took the shirts and pulled on the short sleeve shirt first buttoning it up then the BDU. Looking to her legs, Kamryn realized that she was still clad in her tan cargos sans her two belts; one for the pants themselves and the other that was the tactical belt with the leg rigs. Putting her feet on the ground Kamryn put her left hand up to rest on the top of her shoulder.

"Your belts are on the chair, and your vest I had cleaned of blood is on the chair as well, you are lucky that it's a black vest instead of a lighter color where it would be harder to get that blood out." Hershel turned and watched as Kamryn sat on the edge of the bed testing her weight, when Kamryn stood she was shaky for a few moments before she became quickly balanced.

"Thank you again Hershel for taking care of my back." Walking over to the chair with her belts Kamryn pulled the first through the loops of her pants and did that one up before buckling the tac belt around her waist slightly angling it and buckling her thigh rigs into place. Picking up her vest Kamryn was about to pull it on when Hershel came around the bed and helped her pull her vest on and adjusting the padding so the feel of the vest wasn't uncomfortable.

"You are welcome; you are giving all of us a second chance at life. If you can get us out of here then you are worth all the help and the secrets you carry. Here keep these pills with you, these should keep you functioning and relatively pain free, but the drawback is that they are highly addictive." Hershel held out a blue bottle that Kamryn took label Vidocin, the name was that of Hershel's wife.

"My wife was in pain before she died. This is what remains of the pills that I gathered, I hope these help you." Nodding Kamryn shook the bottle twice and put it into a pouch on her vest before she sat in the chair and pulled on her socks and boots. Once she was fully dressed Kamryn opened the bedroom door and looked back to Hershel one last time and nodded to the man.

"She would be proud of you for doing that you are now, keep on living and when it is your time she'll take you with open arms." Walking out of the bedroom, Kamryn headed down the stairs and was greeted by the smell of food and Dale looking up from his mug of coffee with Andrea over the stove cooking something.

"Hey you two, thanks for getting me help Dale, I think we are even now don't you think?"

"No, you weren't dying or in danger of dying, I was." Dale took a sip of his coffee as Andrea had pour Kamryn a glass of water handing it to her.

"Whatever the matter may be… thank you." Taking a sip of her water Kamryn was able to look out the kitchen window into the sunny fields that the view was giving. Watching as people moved about stacking bodies onto the bed of a truck Kamryn turned to Andrea and Dale with a questioning look on her face.

"There was a problem with one of group and he found that there were Walkers in the barn. He opened the barn and it forced us into a position of killing all of them when Hershel wanted to save them. Hershel is being as strong as possible but he's been having a rough time accepting the events of late. When you saw him, that was the night or two after we brought him back in from drinking to save one of his daughters when she had fallen into shock." Dale had put the mug down and wraped his hands around the mug looking down to the island counter. Andrea finished up the meal she was cooking by putting a plate in front of Kamryn and putting the food on it.

"Here Lieutenant, everyone had already eaten so this is for you. This is my thank you for saving Dale, I… I don't know what I would have done if I lost him." Kamryn offered a crack of a smile and took the fork that Andrea was holding out to her and dug into the food with gusto, whatever she was on painkiller wise was helping keep food down but also make her hungry. Within minutes the plate was emptied and a second helping was put on when Kamryn had asked for more, standing around the island the three talked amongst themselves when Shane decided to grace them with his presence. Thinking that the food on the plate was his along with the water because Kamryn had stepped away to get something from the fridge he picked it up but was on the receiving end of two nasty glares and one very stoic and dark sneer.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to touch what doesn't belong to you?"

"What? This is yours?" Shane held the plate and fork in hand staring down at Kamryn, the fact that he had four inches of height on him didn't bother Kamryn who took the plate and fork from him with a jerk before putting it on the counter.

"Yes as a matter of fact it is mine; I was eating that actually when you decided to show up. Now you have three options. One; you can take your ass to the stove and cook yourself something or ask Andrea nicely to cook you something. Two; you can take your ass out of the kitchen and leave us in peace and wait till we are done. Or three; I kick your self-serving ass out of the kitchen and outside for attacking me."

"I didn't attack…"

"Actually you did, now if you want some advice, I suggest you take a good long look in the mirror. That is unless you can't stand the face that stares back out of it." Shane took a step forwards but was stopped when he felt something sharp and pointy against his chest. "Ah, ah, ah. I would be very careful there… I've seen guys like you before; don't think I'm a push over."

Shane leaned in with his face and sneered at Kamryn before he stepped away and stalked out of the kitchen. Turning and putting the knife that Kamryn had in hand on the counter, Dale and Andrea looked to the half-serrated and half-straight combat knife before Kamryn who picked up her fork and regular knife and settled in to eat.

"Where did that even come from?" Andrea asked gently picking up the knife and looking it over, she had looked up to Kamryn who had a fork of food in her mouth. Chewing her food, Kamryn gently took the knife from Andrea and with swift, fluid, and practiced movement, without looking Kamryn had the knife back in its sheath that was hidden in a slot built in the back of her vest.

"You don't want to know" Kamryn cracked a smile and went back to eating. When she was done Kamryn washed the things she had used and followed Dale outside. Raising a hand to the bright afternoon sun, Kamryn went to the RV and pulled keys out of her pocket. Unlocking the pad lock on her large rucksack Kamryn dug around in her and pulled out tightly rolled bag, when she had unrolled it Kamryn looked up and saw that Dale had seated himself at the table watching her.

"I'm not going to pass out or hurt myself Dale, and I know what you are doing" Kamryn watched as Dale's cheeks pinked, he looked to the door then back to her.

"I know, but it's just my nature to make sure that others are alright, and beside I'm curious to know more about you. I mean you can't have had joined the military right out of school."

Kamryn looked up and smiled; she was putting together another backpack and attaching certain pouches to the inside and out. From the larger pack came six magazines that appeared fully loaded that Kamryn looked over and put into the three double stacked pouches, the next thing she pulled out was a not so small first aid kit that was placed at the bottom of the pack. Dale couldn't believe the size of the pack, it only had one strap that went over the right side of the neck and over the torso that went a waist belt with large buckles. It was small about the size of the school pack back and yet Kamryn was filling it with a lot of things that followed the First Aid and the six magazines.

The pack by the time that Kamryn was done had a combat knife with its sheath strapped to the main strap of the pack, a pouch filled energy bars, a hydration pouch, an unopened vacuum sealed poncho for space, a few vacuum sealed food pouches, water bottle, and a surprisingly small tightly rolled fleece blanket. Closing it up Kamryn did one last thing, she unrolled a shotgun sheath and attached it to the last open strapping area of the pack and put the Mossberg 500 without the stock into it.

"How do you manage to fit all that in there?" Dale looked to the back and saw the smaller back then looked to the larger pack sitting on the floor half mostly empty except for some rather large items like a plastic wash basin and some cardboard boxes with ammunition and a nylon bag with clanging..

"You learn real quick in the military, real quick, but I've always been a bit OCD when it came to space saving, this is a 'grab and go' bag incase anything happens I take this and book it out of there. I can always come back for the rest of my stuff at a later date; I've had to do it before. Pulling the last of the card board boxes and the nylon bag up onto the table, reaching into the Nylon bag Kamryn pulled out a two-and-a-half inch wide by six inch tall black magazine. This was the magazine that fit into Kamryn's rifle; the assault rifle. Opening a paper wrapped 'brick' Kamryn pulled out rounds and set about loading them into the six magazines she had pulled out.

"Exactly how many of those things do you have?" Dale was shocked, he had thought that Kamryn had maybe four or five of the magazines, but when he watched her set six into her pack and looked at the vest she was wearing he couldn't shake that she was a walking munitions container.

"I have a total of sixteen. Six in the pack always loaded, six in my right side of my vest, and four up on my front. Well not always four up on my front, usually there is three up on my front because I have one in the rifle. I hadn't gotten around to it, but I had to use five the last time I was in the city. This is only time I've been able to sit down and actually reload these things." Kamryn had gone through all of her three paper bricks and sighed as she loaded the last round in the black metal box and set it onto the table, looked to the table in thought Dale scooted closer calling Kamryn's name several times. When Kamryn didn't answer Dale waved a hand in front of Kamryn's eyes.

"Hey are you sure you are alright?"

"That's it for these rounds, four hundred an eighty rounds. That's all that I have for the assault rifle. I have maybe forty of the magnum rounds for the M24, and about a hundred and twenty for the Sig magazines. And sixty shells for the shotgun, not including 8 already in the gun. This isn't a lot, it may seem like it, but it's not. Not enough to protect all of you if something goes sideways."

"What do you mean?"

"You would need a handful of guys with as much ammo that I have to stem any sort of walker problem, when I left Atlanta, there wasn't just a small group leaving there was a massive group coming out. If that comes towards us we are in serious trouble."

Dale was shaken to the core, standing up he started taking stock of everything in the RV as Kamryn put away the magazines into the empty slots in the vest. Reaching up Kamryn opened her shotgun shell pouch and saw that they were full. Taking the a black box out from the larger pack Kamryn opened it and pulled out an attachment for the C8 rifle she had, fixing it to the underside of the rifle she had laid on the table she checked the top four pouches of her vest and felt four large rounds that she gently patted.

"And in the case of emergency…" Kamryn whispered to herself quietly, looking out the side window Kamryn saw people mulling about what seemed to be a barn when she heard of yell.

"The bastard snuck up on me and hit me!" Kamryn was up fast knocking her shoulder against a wall in which she set her jaw and grunted in pain. Dale had seen Kamryn and the pain she was in but there was a look in her eyes that spoke enough that he turned and walked out with Kamryn in tow with her assault rifle slung but the M24 in hand.

"Who did?" Kamryn barked, but Shane just sneered at her as the others started a search for someone. Andrea and Rick had come up to Kamryn and Dale and quickly filled her in about the situation.

"You didn't kill him, and yet he was locked up and suddenly Shane comes back hurt?" Shane was walking away to the house, his face was bloody as were his hands, but that could have come from trying to stop the blood coming from the top of his nose. "Something doesn't smell right… but that's just me, I have a funky feeling about things that are happening. I hope you have an escape plan should anything go wrong…"

"We do…"

"No we don't Rick…" Andrea stared at the man who had the good grace of looking chastised, Andrea and Dale walked away from Rick who raised his gaze to Kamryn.

"We have no plan; we shouldn't need to because nothing will get us."

"I hope you are right Rick, because if that Herd from Atlanta is anything to go by… and they pick up more…" Kamryn turned and walked to the RV to help Dale leaving Rick to digest what she said.

"I'm glad you two are taking what I say seriously." Kamryn hadn't been paying attention when she walked in and had to turn around and walk out after he saw Andrea and Dale in a rather close position. Not wanting to ruin whatever moment they were having Kamryn snuck back out and stood by the door with the M24 barrel resting on her left shoulder, the handle business held against her right side with her arms crossed over the gun and around her middle. It was starting to get dark as Kamryn did a walk around, true she wasn't on guard duty due to her shoulder but somehow that didn't stop her from doing it anyways.

As the sun had finally set Kamryn ate a quick dinner and made it back to the RV where she took some more painkillers to help with her shoulder. Having taken off her vest and earlier to get her dressing changed, Kamryn was sitting at the table reading a book when she heard Rick and Shane walk by arguing about something. Looking to where Dale and Andrea were sitting and talking quietly amongst themselves Kamryn noted that they didn't seem to care if there was any sort of verbal argument between to the two men that had walked by.

Getting up and looking through the kitchen sink window towards the fields, Kamryn felt that something was off. It was small at first but as time ticked by the hairs on the back of her neck raised. While everything was quiet, it seemed inhumanly quiet. Taking her pack and putting it by the RV door along with the M24 strapped to the side with the shotgun, Kamryn pulled her vest back on and made sure it was settled in alright. Dale and Andrea were still talking amongst themselves not paying attention to Kamryn who pulled the sling of the C8 over neck and shoulder and letting it hang at her side. Glancing to the other pack, Kamryn had told Dale if he couldn't take the RV, he had to be sure to take that pack, there was more than survival things left that wouldn't fit in her 'Grab and Go' Pack.

Stepping out of the RV Dale and Andrea was pulled from their conversation following Kamryn as she walked out, stepping out behind the navy-woman they watched as Kamryn cocked her head down and slightly to the side like a dog trying to hear something. Moments later a gun crack rang out through the air just behind the hill of the field.

"Stay here; if I come calling back I expect you to listen to what I have to say, got it?" Dale and Andrea nodded to Kamryn who brought her weapon to bear as she started for the fields, not even a minute later and Kamryn stood in her tracks as Rick and Carl, Rick's son were running towards her, five seconds later the first of the Walkers appeared.

"WALKERS!" Kamryn roared, she brought her gun up against her shoulder and looked down the rifle sights and squeezed the trigger once. A single bullet sped out of the barrel flying over Rick's head into the Walker that surprisingly had some speed nearly grabbing the man. Squeezing the trigger again the head of another Walker exploded into a shower of gore.

"Get everyone into the cars!" Kamryn yelled out turning towards to the house where out of the back forest came more of the things. "Shit!" Kamryn raised the rifle up again and pulled the trigger several times as people game out of the house with guns in hand opening fire on the Walkers.

"Get to the cars!" someone called out from the side of Kamryn. Too focused on keeping the Walkers at bay, Kamryn didn't know what was going on with the barn till it went up in flames. Turning to look over her shoulder to the fire Kamryn heard screams coming from the one side of the RV. Running towards it Kamryn turned the corner as she saw Dale with a look of fear on his face as a Walker had him pinned against the siding.

"HELP!" Dale screamed, he had no weapon in hand as it was lying on the ground by him. Letting the rifle fall to her side Kamryn pulled her knife from the back of her belt and grabbed the thing's forehead from behind pulling it back and slamming the blade into the base of the skull. The Walker stopped moving and fell to the ground as Kamryn released her hold.

"Get as many people as you can into the RV and leave!" Nodding at Kamryn's barked orders; Dale made it inside as Lori turned the corner with Hershel and his daughters with a pack of Walkers, pulling her rifle back up Kamryn opened fire but wasn't fast enough as Patricia was grabbed and pulled away from Maggie and Beth. Hershel couldn't get a good grasp on them as Lori pulled on the arms of them all to get them into the RV. Finally managing to kill all the Walkers that had come up behind the RV, Kamryn saw in the corner of her eye a SUV running circles and drive by's with Glenn sitting out on passenger window with a shotgun in hand firing.

T-Dog was in another truck with Andrea and Jim driving away when they heard screaming and saw Carol pinned. Kamryn heard the screams from the RV and looked out watching as the Andrea jumped out of the Truck to help Carol and Jim who was reaching for Carol was pulled out by the Walkers and ripped apart, but seeing the Walkers surround, Kamryn looked from the window inside the RV to the others and Dale who was driving. A loud rumble drove by, it was Carol and Daryl.

Slinging her 'Grab and Go' Pack and buckling up Kamryn made sure her gloves were on and Shemagh was around her neck before she opened the RV door and jump out, even at the slow speed that the RV was going at Kamryn's knees almost buckled as she switched her rifle into AUTO and opened fire heading for Andrea who had fallen from view.

The RV had stopped and someone poked their head out and screamed at Kamryn.

"What are you doing!"

"Get the fuck out of here; I'm not leaving Andrea behind." Kamryn pulled the empty magazine out throwing it into her dump bag at her waist and slammed and fresh magazine home before she opened fire again while screaming out. "Fucking drive!" The RV pulled away as Kamryn made her way to Andrea, that woman was holding her own and when Kamryn made it to her, she pulled on her arm heading into the forest where the Walkers had come from while keeping up a barrage of bullets. "Let's go!"


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: So I'm still having a rough time trying to find a job, I tell you this no job BS is annoying... anyways I OWN NOTHING except Kamryn and Mark. I don't know the comics as I don't have money for the comics so I'm keeping this to the TV show as well as I can. Personally I don't see a lot of readers reading this but I figure I'd write anyways. I'll be working more with Dale and Andrea in the future, I might have a bit of a problem keeping them in character but we'll see how well I play this out. Anyways as always, this is never beta'd so read, review and enjoy.**

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Chapter 4

Dale had kept driving till they reached the highway after listening to Lori and the others arguing amongst themselves. Lori wanted to go to where they had left a marker for Sophia, Hershel wanted to get his daughters out of there. It was a screaming match that made Dale pull off to the side of the road and turn to his passengers and lose his temper.

"Would you all just stop!" Everyone turned to Dale who was extremely worried and yet angry. Angry that Kamryn was gone off, and angry that Andrea wasn't with him. While Dale was typically a man that lost his temper, the power of his anger quickly shut everyone up and stare at him. "All of you are that selfish that you worry about who got away, have any of you even thought of the possibility we not only lost the one person that could get us to safety, but I lost Andrea!" Lori looked down to the carpeted floor while Hershel looked to his daughters before bowing his head. "Now if you don't mind, I for one am going back to that point, I told Andrea if there was a place to meet up it would be there if we needed to leave. I pray to god that she gets there safely because she's on foot"

Getting back into the driver's seat Dale pulled back onto the road heading to the rendezvous point his thoughts on getting there safely as well praying for Andrea.

* * *

"Damn it keep moving" Kamryn had stopped for a moment and raise her rifle up as much as she could, but the pain in her shoulder was too much she wasn't able to put down the few Walkers that had managed to catch up to them. Letting the rifle drop to her side on its sling Kamryn turned around and went after Andrea who trucked on. They had been running for hours and even for a soldier, an injured one, Kamryn's legs were feeling like lead as she kept pushing herself forwards. Andrea had a few rounds left for her pistol that she quickly loaded in as Kamryn held her right arm to her body, Kamryn watched as she turned with a mostly loaded pistol and carefully picked her shots. Those Walkers went down as Andrea grabbed Kamryn's left arm and they continued on through the moon lit forest.

It had been getting on in the evening were fog started form. Having shared a bottle of water that Kamryn pulled from the bottle pouch, Kamryn had had enough, her shoulder was burning and was wet from blood that had been leaking from the bandages. Turning back sluggishly Kamryn pulled her large combat knife from its holdings in the vest and held it in her left hand. While she was mainly right handed the training taught her to be double handed in weapons. Andrea had stopped and turned to look at Kamryn who had slammed knife into the side of the skull of one Walker as another came at her from the side, but Kamryn turned her back to it using her pack to put a bit of space between them and pushed backwards pinning the Walker to the tree. Andrea watched as Kamryn used whatever strength she had left to do a quick turn counter-clockwise to slam the knife into the temple of the Walker before she pulled the blade out and stepped back a few steps.

"Look out!" Kamryn turned in time to see a Walker right there and she stumbled back into her back, she screamed in pain as she dropped her knife and grabbed at her shoulder. She looked up as the Walker was about to tear into her when all of a sudden the head dropped onto Kamryn's leg and rolled away, the body fell backwards as Kamryn and Andrea looked to Kamryn's savior.

* * *

"Okay now I've seen everything." In front of Kamryn was a black cloaked figure holding a chain in one hand and a Katana in the other. No one could see her face as she pulled the chain and jerked the katana to sling blood to the ground. Kamryn rested on her pack as Andrea dropped to her knees and crawled over to Kamryn pulling at the buckle of the pack.

"Argh" Kamryn cried, Andrea moved around Kamryn and when she was at the other woman's side she pulled Kamryn to a sitting position by the straps of the vest she was wearing. The figure stepped closer but a reflex from Andrea was a pistol draw as the Katana wasn't put away but pointed at Kamryn.

"Don't even think about it!" The figure cocked its head to the side and put the sword into the ground and wrapped the chain around the sword before pulling back its hood.

"Damn, you're a woman" Andrea said as she pulled Kamryn's pack around opening it.

"And I just saved your friend's life, what's wrong with her?" The woman asked as moved over and knelt down beside Kamryn who turned her head and grabbed the other woman by her front pulling her close whispering in her ear. Kamryn let her go and looked to Andrea before nodding to the pack that Andrea pulled out and showed her, it was the first aid kit. The other woman who hadn't introduced herself reached up and pulled the quick release system of the vest causing Kamryn to hiss and curse colorfully.

"Get behind me…. and hold me up. You'll be repacking and… wrapping my shoulder up seeing as… you haven't been running for several hours like we have. Andrea. I know this is a bit much but I need to you undress me… " Kamryn said as she pulled a leg in close, her savior had positioned herself behind Kamryn and took most of Kamryn's weight when she leaned back. Andrea had come around to Kamryn's front and started unbuttoning the woman's shirts pulling them open, it was then that Andrea realized she wasn't wearing a bra and was thankful it was nighttime.

Pulling Kamryn towards her after, the other woman took the medical supplies laid out and took the wrap and packing off and wiped Kamryn's back down as well as she could in the moonlight seeing the open yet healing wound. The woman didn't say anything but set about redoing the dressing, packing and wrapped Kamryn's shoulder back up. Helping the Kamryn to redress and put the vest back on, the woman took the bloody wraps and dressing off a distance and dumped them before going back to Kamryn and Andrea giving them a once over before nodding.

"We are trying to get to the highway; we are supposed to meet with the survivors of the farm house. Can you point us in the right direction?" Andrea said as Kamryn dropped back two pills and had some water, Andrea had since took the pack putting it on while slinging the Rick's duffle bag. Kamryn had her rifle still slung at her side but she wouldn't be able to use it for a while yet not till the drugs kicked into her system.

"The way to the highway is gone, all that is left is the side roads, and there is a safe place if you are willing to follow me. It will give you at least a few days to rest. I should also mention Lieutenant that are a few of your kind at the safe haven."

"My people?" Kamryn questioned as Andrea stood beside her, the woman pulled her hood back up taking her sword and the chains in hand.

"Military that survived the outbreak and mass murder" Kamryn let her eyebrow raise into her hairline, if there were more survivors then Kamryn might be able to figure out what the hell was going on and why they were being slaughtered in the first place.

"Lead on"

"Kamryn, are you sure we can trust her?" Andrea asked quietly as they followed the two armless and jawless Walkers. Kamryn turned her head enough so that Andrea could tell she was talked to.

"I need to know what's going on; don't you want to know why people were being slaughtered in the first place?" Kamryn, kept an eye on her surroundings as they walked on. It had taken an hour of solid walking but the woman with the leashed Walkers lead them to what seemed to be a super max prison.

"Okay this wasn't I was expecting… how many people are here?"

"Around twenty, welcome to 'Haven', and I'm Michonne." Kamryn followed Michonne into the compound where there were two guards with rifles pointed at them. Kamryn eyed them as they came closer. They were grunts, but low ranking ones and when they saw Kamryn and the bars on her vest that marked her as an officer they lowered their weapons down a fraction.

"Identify yourself!" one of the grunts yelled through the fence at Kamryn.

"H97248400, Lieutenant Commander Kamryn Destler of the Canadian Forces at Esquimalt, Pacific Fleet."

The grunt lowered his weapon and the other followed suit as they went to the chain link locked fence and opened it quickly and then shut it locking back up once Kamryn and Andrea where through. The two grunts saluted Kamryn which she barely was able to return.

"I'm Sergeant Conner of the United States Army, and this is Private First Class Jensen with the Army as well. There are a few others here too; there is a Marine, one SEAL and one medic that was in training." Kamryn nodded and sighed as Conner stepped closer to Kamryn and lowered his voice. "There were rumors that the officer caste knew what was going on, but on my way out my Lt stepped in the way of having some of us killed. He disobeyed an order and was killed on the spot but not before he gave me time to run."

Kamryn nodded as Andrea looked around the compound as Conner told Jensen to lead them inside to the others. Kamryn thanked Conner and followed Jensen as Michonne lead her Walkers to a different area of the compound. Andrea and Kamryn walked inside of the main building and saw that there were survivors mulling about. The two were met by a Marine who eyed Kamryn carefully seeing the Officer rank she held and saluted her before letting her into one particular room where Kamryn saw a man sitting behind a desk.

"I'm the Governor and this is my 'Haven', and you are guests here" the man before Kamryn had the Marine standing behind him at his right hand side. It was settled there in her mind who belonged to whom and who was treated better than others.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Destler with the Canadian Forces Navy, Pacific Fleet. As it may be that we are here as your guests, what is it that we can do for you?"

"I am always looking for new survivors as well as people with… unique skill sets…" at this Kamryn raised her eyebrow up as Andrea looked to Kamryn who ever so slightly cocked her head.

"And why is that Governor?"

"Because right now this is the only true safe place for refuge, and it is a place that I founded that works. The fences keep the … dead out and the living in." Kamryn watched the man as he stood up; he was dressed extremely well with short brown hair and a well groomed beard. He had started to walk around the desk as the Marine followed in behind him. The Marine was just a goon for hire and that alone set Kamryn on edge, he wasn't an officer Marine so he wasn't terribly bright, but a grunt Marine was just as dangerous as the rest.

"If you are willing Commander, we can set you up with a room and show you around. Though I do suggest you don't spend too much time with the guards or that SEAL. Keeping him here was a bit of a mistake but he's being kept away for his own good. He's already hurt too many of our own already with his nonsense. Come we will get you and your… companion set up. Wilson, please show our guests to their quarters."

"Sir" The Marine acknowledged his leader and led the way out as Kamryn said his thanks with Andrea following in Kamryn's wake. Following the Marine, Kamryn took a real good look around at the people that were staying, they quickly parted when Wilson had started down a hall, the scared looks where enough that the still standing hairs on the back of her neck made her glare at the Marine. There was clearly something wrong here in this place of 'Haven'. Turning down a hall Wilson the Marine was greeted warmly by a few people who stared at Kamryn and Andrea hungrily making Andrea shift closer to Kamryn and Kamryn herself put her hand on the pistol grip of her side arm.

"This room here is yours, and your…"

"She stays with me, unless you have an objection." Kamryn looked around to the others as they closed in forcing Andrea to grip the back of her vest. While the woman was older then Kamryn, the fear of having eight men surround her with the hungry look in their eyes put fear into her, forget the Walkers, the dead she could deal with, but human beings that looked at her like the way they were now made her scared. Kamryn stood her ground as another man in full black gear and gun in hand stepped out of his room.

"Leave them be, they clearly don't want to be separated, and I don't think looking at them like meat will do anything for you." The sandy colored short haired man smirked, his ice grey eyes danced in amusement.

"Who the fuck said you could come out of your room Taylor?" Kamryn smiled at the SEAL with the name Taylor as he got up into the face of Wilson the Marine. The two were so close to each other that the crowd was moving around them taking their attention off the two women who backed into the room that the SEAL had left opened. Once Kamryn pulled Andrea in, the SEAL raised his hands up, the side arm put away as he back up into his room shutting his door, but not before a shout was heard and a bunch of bangs sounding on the solid metal door.

The SEAL turned and looked at Kamryn who stuck his hand out, Kamryn took it and shook it a smile was plastered on her face; the same smile was on the SEAL's face.

"Long time Kamryn"

"Long time Mark, how the hell did you get caught up with guys like these?" Andrea looked between the two and saw how friendly they were with each other, the question was written on the clearly confused face of Andrea.

"Andrea is this Chief Petty Officer Mark Taylor, he's with the US SEAL's and a great friend of mine. We did some training together when he was up at Esquimalt before I took off to do my official Officers training. I'm a Lieutenant Commander by field promotion, but my military and ship crew didn't want me to stuck as a lower Non-commissioned member. So they had put me up to my current rank then sent me for the official training, so officially and yet not officially I hold my rank as it is."

"And I have to say she's a damn good officer, better than some of the guys that I've come across in my time." Taylor didn't want to linger too much on the history of Kamryn and Andrea looked about dead on her feet. Pointing to a couch, Andrea dropped the bag on the floor and sat down groaning happily as Kamryn unslung her rifle setting it on a table that Mark said was okay.

Leading Kamryn to a table with maps and reports Mark pushed something towards Kamryn who picked it up after taking her gloves off and putting them off to the side.

"What is this?"

"This is what is going on; it was something I was able to dig up on a black ops guy after he died. The grunts with him said that they had to burn the body, but too many of the dead had flooded in the area so from what I heard while hiding was 'fuck it lets just go'. Have a look." Mark said quietly so that only Kamryn could hear him.

Opening folder that had a stack of previously folded paper, Kamryn shifted through and looked over orders, they hadn't been red-acted so these were the real deal from a big wig that Kamryn didn't know. Orders were for containment of 'Infection' 'Any and all at site are to be liquidated' 'No survivors' 'Burn orders after given'

"You can't be serious Mark, these are from an American"

"Keep reading, you'll find orders from Canadians too" Kamryn flipped a few pages, this one was covered in blood but the writing was still legible. It was some the Canadian Joint Military Chief and the orders were startlingly close to those of the US command orders. This was clearly a military problem that had gotten out of hand from Kamryn's point of view.

"Do we know exactly what this is?" Kamryn said as she closed the file and threw it back onto the table looking down at the currently used map; it was a map of North America with 'X' Marks on it and a set of notes next to it.

"These are the currently known starting attacks from three months ago, I was with a squad when we were told to go and do a rescue operation in Atlanta, why I was in Atlanta I will never know, but what I do know is that my guys and I were tricked. It was a medical facility I think, and what was in there wasn't anything I had ever had ever seen, we were shot at, I lost half of my guys to what we thought were the good guys and the last half and I barely made it out. We were lucky as we heard of a military staging point at a CDC location, when we got there every else started to die. I got out in the nick of time with the information one of my guys was able to hack from the systems at the staging point.

It seems to be that it wasn't just the Americans or the Canadian, it's everyone. Something was either accidentally let go, or some weird shit, but there was something my guy had found before he died. He said that back before the incident started there were people that were called in for 'shots' now what these shots are I don't know, I never had one that I could remember being called in for. A few of my guys did and some of them didn't come back as the walking dead, but a few that I'm guessing didn't get the shot did. Medically I can't tell you shit about what this is because I'm not a scientist or doctor."

Kamryn remembered when she was called in for her shot just before Farnham. They told her it was a booster shot and that she didn't need to worry. Not caring at the time, Kamryn had just moved on and then the accident happened. And now she was a bit worried about what the military is doing to their people and the rest of the human population if this was something they started.

"Well this is just great, now not only do we have a governmental problem we have a problem with the ass hat here. If that information you have is why you are locked…"

"I'm not locked in; I purposely get put into this room because it's the room that has the most privacy and I always have a way out. However my only problem is that the prick in charge of this place keeps his Marine dog watching me and the guards. Half of the people are in fear for the Governor, and the other half is sided with him. As you can tell this is a male dominated place with only a handful of women. Anyone that swears allegiance to this guy gets what they want, but at a cost. That cost is too high for me, and the two guards who barely respect the man. It's why they are the outside guards and they never at let into the main compound except to escort people to the big 'boss'. Kamryn leaned against the table wincing in pain from her shoulder Mark saw the pain filled look and raised his eyebrows up. Kamryn looked to Andrea who had since passed out on the couch and was sleeping peacefully for once.

"What happened to you?" Mark had come around as Kamryn stepped back away from him with her gaze to the ground. That action had Mark stare at her when he took another step towards her, Kamryn did the same thing and back up.

"I need to know if you'll put me down like the rest of the dogs Mark, because I know you've seen those bitten and what happened to them."

"What are you talking about Kamryn?"

"You don't think I wouldn't know if your buddies didn't get bitten, you have their tags around your neck. You are carrying them around. A few must have been bitten and you put a bullet in their head"

"I… yes… I don't know what else to tell you, they had the infection. My orders were to make sure that anyone that had the infection didn't pass it on and get the non-infected out of there."

"Yes well, you are going to have to make a choice aren't you?" Kamryn pulled her side arm out and pointed it at Mark when realization dawned on him and he raised his own gun up. "Are you going to kill me because I've been bitten?"

"You tell me Kamryn, orders are orders, and I never expected you would be infected."

"Kamryn, you where bitten?" the noise from the two of them brought Andrea out of her sleep as she heard Kamryn her question about being killed because she was bitten. Andrea stood up walked up behind Mark who was still pointing his gun at Kamryn.

"Yes I was, I was bitten back about a month and a half ago. The wound itself is healing, but because of how much movement I have been doing, I haven't been able to let it properly heal, it's about half the size it is now and Hershel knew, he did the rest of the cleanup I couldn't do." Andrea moved from Mark and stood by Kamryn when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Make your choice Mark; I don't want to have to put you down in self defense." Kamryn and Mark faced off, the conflict in Mark's grey eyes were visible to Kamryn who watched the man before he put his own gun away allowing Kamryn to breath in relief. Going to the door Mark opened it and Michonne walked in with a whisper.

"I have these for you; there was a store room of this in the medical bay. Apparently this medicine is something that some Chinese guy had used and told others to use it as well, the Governor had these bared off. I got in after tricking a guy." Michonne held out two dark colored plastic bottles with Chinese writing on it.

"Question, are we stuck here in this prison?"

"For now yes, unless you can sneak out under the nose of the Marine who frequently … pays visits to the Guards." Kamryn sighed and hoped that the others were alright. There was a vocal commotion outside of the room, Kamryn and the room occupants left the room when Kamryn was greeted by the sight of Andrea leaving her side and running to Dale who wrapped his arms around her hugging her tightly and kissing the side of her head, Glenn and Maggie and appeared around the two followed by the rest minus the two that had died back at the farm. What was strange was that they had no weapons with them, whatever weapons they had before were taken from them except for Rick who still had his revolver.

"You are all safe, how did you find this place?"

"I should be asking you that Kamryn" Dale said, Andrea let him go and he shifted the pack on his back, the lock he had put on it was still on it, while Dale had a spare key from Kamryn he didn't let any of the people that checked him go through the bag.

"I was actually saved from certain death, by this one here." Kamryn said as she pointed to Michonne.

"While this is all great and all, I was told to … escort you to the west wing, seeing as you all know each other you can all stay there. " It was Wilson the Marine who snapped at the people having their reunion. Kamryn looked to Mark and went back to his room to gather her things and walked back out and followed Wilson and a few others who carried their weapons and had sneers plastered along their faces.

"Once you are in the West wing you are all to receive duties and you WILL do your duties, do I make myself clear" Wilson snapped, he might have been a drill instructor in the past and possibly a corrupt one to boot. Mark sneered at Wilson as the others were herded outside to a bunch of doors that led to a half destroyed wing. Kamryn took a deep breath as she walked by Wilson who made a grab at her pack and rifle only to be swiftly horse kicked in the balls by Kamryn. Guns were raised on Kamryn by the others with Wilson who went down to his knees grabbing himself.

"Touch my shit again and I'll make sure you can't touch anything again." The Marine started for Kamryn again after he recovered enough but was stopped by Mark who stood in the way. Wilson was happy enough to get into Mark's face telling him if he wanted to stay with the 'dirt munchers' he could, he had lost his room and if he wanted anything from it he better run fast.

Mark had run like the devil was on his heels when he left leaving Wilson to sneer at Kamryn before he too walked out. To Kamryn he was the typical looking American, tall, baldish, built like a tank and eyes of a stone cold killer. There was nothing but dislike for Kamryn because one she was a woman and two she was military causing Wilson to verbally promise he would be back for her.

Looking about the ruins of the wing, Kamryn pulled a flashlight out from her belt and started down the semi darkened hall. Michonne had been following at the distance but wasn't called upon by Wilson or the goons; it was like she herself didn't exist.

"Well this is fun and now…" Rick came up beside Kamryn and looked down at her. "You try it Rick and I'll be as unpleasant as I was to the ass Marine. Kamryn's hard glint in her eye was enough for Rick to realize he wasn't in control, she was and she wasn't about to back down for no one.

"Michonne, I know you are back there and you know the layout of this place, you lead the way to not so trashed out rooms hmm?"

"Well this was the guards quarters before the mass break out, there are maybe two or three rooms that weren't touched by the fires that had started down this way" Kamryn shone her light on Michonne who came from the rear and started walking up beside the Navy woman.

"You are going to have hell raining down on you Lieutenant I hope you know that" Kamryn chuckled and raised her left eyebrow up, Michonne wasn't looking but Kamryn didn't think the other woman cared. Rick and family fell in behind Kamryn, behind them were Hershel and his family along with Glenn, then Andrea, Dale and T-Dog, and then finally Carol and Daryl bringing up the rear. It was too dark for Kamryn's liking as they continued down stepping over rubble and burned out sections.

"Here, these are the rooms but you will have to clear them out as the boys up front thought it would be cute to load with shit." Michonne said as she pushed open four semi-stable doors.

"Lovely" Kamryn said quietly, there were four rooms, but a quick look into the rooms showed the two of the four rooms where conjoined, there was only the remains of a wall separating them by varying degrees of destruction. "Well at least there are a couple beds and a few couches." Kamryn turned and looked at the group while staring at Rick. "Okay, I know it's been a long bit especially for you guys as you don't know me, but we need to clean this crap out or you ain't going to have a place to sleep. I'll set up some lights but the rest is for you to do, I can't lift much, much less my arm right now."

"Rick, can we trust her?" This came from Lori who stared at Kamryn with a heated look; clearly she wanted her husband in charge despite the look of anger that was directed at Rick. Mark had come back with his pack and a wagon of gear and other things forcing Kamryn to visually question the man.

"I raided a few places before I could be stopped, I am a SEAL and they won't know till it's too late. I have food, blankets, lights, a first aid kit, a case of booze and some party favors that I … Liberated" Kamryn walked over to the wagon and pulled the tarp up raising an eyebrow.

"The guards helped I take it?" Kamryn asked with half a smile.

"They did…" Kamryn smiled and turned to the group before pulling the tarp off. Daryl's cross bow was sitting on top of a pile of weapons, a few metal crates and the rest that Mark said he 'picked' up.

"They'll be pissed you took their shit Mark"

"You think I want to be kept here?" The man snarled the question before he calmed down a bit, "I don't want to be here anymore. These guys lock your asses away in places you can't get out of, one of those places being this wing, the only way out is through the security wing were Wilson and his shit balls are standing guard, the rest are split to do the real dirty work to make high and mighty back there comfortable. This will never be a haven, this will and always a prison." Mark wheeled the Wagon into one of the rooms with everyone following suit. Kamryn took her pack off with Dale putting the one he was carrying down by her bag.

"Okay let's get some light in here and…" Kamryn had taken a battery lamp and turned it on when she looked around and swallowed hard. "What the fuck happened in here?" the walls were covered in blood, guts and other things that Kamryn hadn't seen since she was a teen. Stepping up to the wall Kamryn held the lamp to the wall and looked to Mark who stepped up beside her.

"I hope you aren't religious Mark…"

"Why?"

"These are to keep demons in here… permanently…" Mark looked at Kamryn weirdly; Kamryn turned her head and sighed turning back to the others and setting the lamp down she reached and turned a on a few more lamps that Mark had taken.

"I was young and I loved Halloween, I took a look into a few books on demons, monsters, angels, spirits and the occult. These scrawlings… are meant as a locking spell for whoever comes in here demons or 'inhuman' things would be confined here. It means we are in a lot of trouble. We need to leave this place when we can because there is no way we will survive what I termed 'super religious freak'. These people are crazy to the extreme and I don't want to see what comes of this mad man's insanity." Kamryn looked around more and saw other markings in the other rooms and stood in the hall where there were people with torches just standing there at the end of the hall where there was a bar door still open. Too tired to even do much Kamryn just stood her ground and watched as the door was shut and locked.

Others from the room had come out and stood behind Kamryn looked at the now closed door. This was not what they had expected at all and now they were stuck for the time being as rain started to come down outside. As they stood there an evil laugh rang out throughout the prison challenging them.


	5. Authors note Oct 30th 2012

Mass Author's Note Blast:

So my fellow readers/adders/subscribers etc, etc. I have finally found myself a Beta, and as such I have ALL of my stories under a Beta tag for the most part. There are going to be a few select stories that will be posted RAW for your enjoyment and when they beta'ed you will be the first to know. In the future for most part PLEASE subscribe to my pen name as anything new I post will have an UPDATED author's not with not just that story but what is going on with the stories in general in terms of beta work.

Thanks for sticking by me including my awesome Harry Potter fans that have waited for a new chapter, they are coming, believe me they are coming. In the mean time please read anything new that I put out that might catch your fancy or something new for that matter.

Thanks for the love, and your support,

(H)


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